A change at the last hour to save the media like the hound Monti has prolonged the stay the way I read this I think this is better move now .Mario Monti, who announced on Saturday that he intended to resign after just over a year as Italy's prime minister, restored international credibility to his country and dragged it back from the brink of financial collapse. The 69-year-old former European commissioner replaced the scandal-plagued Silvio Berlusconi in November last year as skyrocketing borrowing costs threatened to plunge Italy into a Greek-style debt crisis. Now it is the withdrawal of Berlusconi's support in parliament that has prompted his decision to go once next year's budget is approved, a few months before polls expected in March. Monti, who was known as the "Italian Prussian" in Brussels where he made his name as an effective and intransigent competition commissioner, quickly won the admiration of Italy's partners and financial markets. When Berlusconi pulled his party's backing for Monti's technocrat government on Dec. 6, the gap between Italy's benchmark bonds and safer German Bunds stood below 3.2 percentage points, little more than half the level when Monti took over. With his economist's training and measured, sober manner Monti is often considered a very atypical Italian and was the perfect antidote to the discredited Berlusconi. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

Seemingly italian politicians have not yet understood what is necessary in Europe in these certainly difficult times. I wonder if italian voters have more understanding about the current situation. Europe can not afford an italian bail-out.

It is amazing how little the author of this article knows. He seldom comes where he is more ignorant than anyone else. It's not true that Bersani has plenty of political experince. Mr Bersani is a former communist and if you are a communist you can't be right in the head and only morons can trust such a man. It is not true that this Mr Bersani when was last in office between 2006 and 2008 he was on the side of reforms. He only pretended to make reforms. The reforms this 'good minister'tried to carry out where only laughable and negligible reforms nobody noticed. Have you ever heard of communists making reforms. It would be the same to speak of an honest thief. Mr Bersani is a former communist and once communist always communist all the way. Don't forget the proverb." The leopard never changes his spots". NEVER!!!!
We have to take note of the fact that should Bersani and his left acolytes take power in Italy, Italy would lose any credibility that's why the foreign markets wouldn't have any confidence in Italy's future. They wouldn't buy Italy's public bond and the government wouldn't have the means to pay salaries, pensions and services. There would be a dreadful recession, huge unemployment, flight of capital, relocation of many firms abroad. The government would be compelled to put taxes over taxes among them the sinister property tax would excel. It would be a general disaster and because of that the centre-right voters, who are the majority in the country, have to join together and avoid absolutely that the leftists could take power in Italy. Only a nation of idiots would be ready to entrust its destiny and its future to a party (the PD with secretary the former communist Mr Bersani) which is the direct spritual heir of the craziest and most deranged and insane ideology which has ever infested the world we live in: the Communism

Italy and with it all those that have given it some trust and belief that it was able to make progress are sadly getting what they deserve: thank you Mr. Berlusconi for reminding us so harshly what the real Italy is about.

@MAXIMILIANO HERRERA.Maximiliano,how is weather in Paris?The squalid provocations you write just now that we got rid of a man and a government that we never needed may come only from the well known source in France hosting provocations and idiotisms of sarkozist nature.I do not believe that you write from Spain:a little bit of decency would deny you to write what you write.Anyway,anything would be better than this government:it is out of doubt that we shall make a U turn and after the next elections elect a government that will understand a simple truth:you do not have any progress without helping sales,which means growth and pullout from recession.Something that Monti pretended of not understanding,while he perfectly understood how to fatten his beloved banks

We still are waiting for the reamarks of Monty Italy geared up for early elections on Sunday after Prime Minister Mario Monti said he will resign in the coming days and Silvio Berlusconi announced he will run again for the sixth time in two decades."I have matured the conviction that we could not continue like this any longer," Monti was quoted as saying a day after his announcement in an interview with Ferruccio De Bortoli, editor of top daily Corriere della Sera.Monti explained that he made his decision after lawmakers from Berlusconi's People of Freedom party withdrew their support for his government last week in a symbolic protest, saying Italy was now economically worse off than before. It is too early for us to judge . We have seen many who want to leave want to come back and rule even the ruins I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

An old communist against an old oligarch.
Bersani will increase taxes and will not cut the cost of state... and Berlusconi doesn't expect to win, he just wants to create a group that will help him to survive and defend his interests. He was recently convicted of tax fraud and is facing trial on accusations that ha paid for sex with a minor.

They are unfit to rule Italy!

We need a third way that obviously is not Casini, Fini and Montezemolo ...

Italy needs a total renewal, but that should start from citizens.
Few weeks ago the left party had the possibility of choosing a candidate between an old nomenklatura dinosaur and a young politician that despite his limits had a more liberal approach. Well, they chose the old guy.
Similarly there is no a right wing party expressing liberal values. The buffoon, defining liberal himself and his party of servants / courtesans, sounds like a contradiction in terms.
Electing younger and more open minded politicians could help Italy to rebuild a new identity and a new role in the globalised world. Carrying on with this absurd theatre of old ignorant people, self absorbed in the preservation of their power, would lead to complete disaster.

So many political leaders are painted as buffoons, fascists, communists, and what not in the worst propagandist era in contemporary history, that labels may be losing their effectiveness. As a matter of fact, I would not be surprised to find out eventually that negative labels have helped move some people in the unintended direction. Any party or individual whom uses labels to depict someone is most definitely not worth trusting, as what got the world in trouble to begin with is abuse and excess, and I can't picture how more abuse and excess can be deemed to be a remedy to the current political and economic crisis. It is also surprising to see how political candidates said to be losing the election race have won the election, as I suspect many people do not answer polls honestly to avoid criticism.

I am Italian and I hope that at the next elections the Italian people going to vote properly and wisely, because Italy cannot have other 5 years of berlusconi and his circus dwarfs and dancers.
Why now, even those who supported him before, are disgusted by the evil who led to italy and europe.
Italy is not Berlusconi dwarves and "olgettine" is also Art, Culture, Literature, Architecture and the best people in the world.
Italy and Italian people are wonderful, more than any other country worldwide, but they have been overshadowed by the storm that brought Berlusconi.

not sure how you can state that Italy and Italians are wonderful people. Italy is a poor country, with a corruption of a third world place, run by mafia and few other criminals, corrupted at all levels, sort sighted in his decisions and first of all ignorant and thinking with the belly not with the head.
Otherwise I can;t explain how a corrupted buffoon, under investigations for most the crimes in the Criminal Code can still be out of jail, owning televisions and papers and running again for the most important job in country.
I swear I am going to give up my passport if he somehow manages to get there again. The odds are against him, but the short memory of Italians since the Roman times has proved to be unbeatable.

If your countrypeople will be so fool to vote for Bersani and the leftists they will jump out of the frying pan into the fire, as sure as eggs is eggs. Whre do they think they are going with the leftists? Ah,Ah,Ah!!!!!

That's the point that Italians don't get. THEY have to change and not their political leadership. Tax fraud and corruption are Italy's biggest problem and the politicians are only the top of this iceberg. Italians live mainly without rules and leak of a social sense towards others.

I doubt that people vote wisely, as obviously emotions are running high. Moreover, voting wisely nowadays is polite to mean vote as I do. Furthermore, most people understand that any collective effort made to restore economic prosperity and social order may be undermined by events outside of their control and their territorial borders such that their faith is not entirely within their own control.

He is out of jail because the judges who, for the most part, are left-wingers and biased against him, have no proof to convict him of something. They have always come out empty-handed. What proof have they got that he was guilty of something? No one. That's the truth. If your countrypeople will be so fool to vote for Bersani and the leftists next year, they will jump out of the frying pan into the fire, as sure as eggs is eggs. Where do you think you are going with the leftists? You are heading for the rocks perhaps.

If the Italian people do not vote for the leftists for who they should vote?
For Grillo...nooooo! it's the same of berlusconi.
for berlusconi....noooo! he is the drama for european economy.
I think, and I hope, that at the next vote the leftlist will win. and that Bersani put at the economics ministry Mario Monti.
...is the only way

If the Italian people do not vote for the leftists for who they should vote?
For Grillo...nooooo! it's the same of berlusconi.
for berlusconi....noooo! he is the drama for european economy.
I think, and I hope, that at the next vote the leftlist will win. and that Bersani put at the economics ministry Mario Monti.
...is the only way

....with a communist al PM and a bankster as economy minister a scoundrel who sold junk fund and ruined a great number of people and a country...it would be the sure way to go for the rocks. You are right!

Elections will likely be held on 24 February, not together with the municipal ones (note for The Economist: Italians say "election day" in English only when elections at two or more levels are held simultaneously).
Monti is thinking to launch a candidature (with a coalition of centrist parties ?).
It's a mess: Berlusconi leading the center-right with small chance to win, the centrist parties which have been beaten down badly (Di Pietro Party with internal divisions and scandals and Casini's with lower consensus), The center-left of the old guard Bersani supported by Vendola and the big chunk of votes of the 5 Stars Movement which is not seeking any compromise with anybody.
The Center-Left will likely win, but perhaps with a minority government and it would be hard to govern. Than, another crisis, new elections, and perhaps the default coming. Poor Italy....

There's no possibility for a minority government in Italy thanks to the "porcellum" reform. The winning party receives automatically 55% of the seats in the Italian parliament. The rest amount will be distributed among the other parties.

That is only true in part. The problem is that this "winning bonus" is attributed at the national level for the lower house (Camera), in the senat they are attributed at the regional level. So, it may happen what happened in 2006 (when Prodi won): a majority in the Senat of 3 senators or something like that.

Italian politics.”The Empire Strikes Back” As it seems inevitable that Mr Berlusconi will return one asks the question, is it to do which the gnome, genes or boomerangs? Mr(s) Blair, Sarkozy all wish to return after having served there apprenticeships.

What a sad, pathetic and desperate country is Italy right now.
This is a third world country, really, let's face the reality: it still survives with the inheritance of some industry built and designed by past brilliant Italian minds, but today there is only mediocrity and more mediocrity.
This country will keep declining year after year, no matter if the world economy will improve.

The problem with the Italians' attitude to Monti, is that they believe his job was to make Italy like Germany, or Australia, or maybe even a bit more like France - that is - competitive. When in reality, Monti's task was to avoid Italy going down the path of Greece, Portugal and Spain. And like it or not, he achieved this. At least for the duration of his tenancy.

This is the great irony, and stupidity, of the populist Italian position on Monti. They feel that Monti was an instrument of Goldman Sachs, of Germany and the ECB, and a symbol for a loss of sovereignty. When in reality, it is Monti's very departure which will see Italy lose its sovereignty.

Monti's departure will see Italy require a bailout, onward to partial default, over the next 12-18 months. Then the Italian people will see will see what loss of sovereignty means. Then they will see what high taxes means.

And at that point, when the incumbent leader - be it Berlusconi or Bersani or even that clown Grillo - is ignominiously booted out, they will turn to the next populist leader, who will run on a platform of telling Italians what exactly they want to hear..that "things need to change, but YOU...PERSONALLY...don't need to change with it." It's always "other" people in Italy that needs to change.

That Berlusconi can still manipulate the Italian political landscape purely for his own ends, that of avoiding ejection from politics and criminal prosecution, says nothing about Berlusoni and everything about how sick and gullible Italy is as a country.

What's happening now in Italy is a last desperate grasp, now rapidly slipping away, of a world they think still exists. A world where you can have a job for life. A world where you can retire early, on a sizeable pension. A world where 40% of don't have to be in the paid workforce, but at home, with their 1.2 children.

Italy has two options: they can accept reality, let go of their delusions and pursue the new world with dignity and through self-determination. Or they can be dragged into it, kicking and screaming, by other powers.

Or there is a third, and that is to continue the long and continuous decline, which in the end will be the hallmark of the Berlusconi era.

The third scenario is the likeliest. The second, the most painful. The first? It seems Italy is too deluded, too immobile, to factionalised, too unwilling, and too yesterday, to even see it.

Shame. It is the country of all of my ancestors, which I so dearly love in my heart. But a country in which a criminal like Berlusconi can still dominate, is gladly, no country of mine.

Italy's credibility, economy and future are irrelevant matters in this political moment. So it's better to forget about them. The only subject that counts in this moment, that is taken into account by political leaders is their possibility of winning the elections. They had not and still have not any serious idea about how to make the country actually restart. It's a pure game for leading a falling country:. Berlusconi's policy was a total fuss. The vast majority of his political companions are just tragically funny, keen to follow him to save themselves. So Berlusconi and Berlusconians are the problem on the right wing.On the left the problem is quite specular: Bersani won and old styled eternal politicians of that party are taking care of their future. The game will be played without any moral limitations and ignoring 100% both the country and its inhabitants. About this we can still discuss, but please do not make use of concepts like" italians" "economy" "future" or "credibility.

09/12/2012 We have physical, fiscal and mental torture we go through daily or spasmodic and these create the cobwebs in our head, killing=g out clear thinking On March 24, 1944, in retaliation for a partisan attack, the SS army killed 10 Italians for each of the German soldiers who had died on the previous day. Learning about the Ardeatine massacre was how I first heard the expression "to decimate"; it was only years later that I realised the true meaning of the word, and how perverse it was for it to have been reversed like that. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced on Saturday that he intended to resign once next year's budget is approved in parliament after Silvio Berlusconi's party withdrew its support for his technocrat government this week. Only hours before the announcement, Berlusconi said he would run to become premier for a fifth time on a platform that attacks Monti's stewardship of the economy. President Giorgio Napolitano is now expected to set the date for an election, which must come within 70 days of the government resigning. Italy had in any case been due to go to the polls by April at the latest. Monti's move turns the tables on Berlusconi, who seemed to have once again seized a political opportunity to keep his party in the political game just a year after being forced to resign amid a sex scandal and a debt crisis. At a conference in France earlier, Monti, whose year in office was widely credited with restoring Italy's international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi era, warned of the threat of "populism". He said Italy should not go back to where it was when he took over for Berlusconi a year ago. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

Monti should finish on trail, he managed to destroy Italian economy and people in less then a year, I never seen country going down in such a speed, and EU is applauding for a job good done...please....

Monti did what had to be done. When he took his place Italy had a national debt of 125 % of his gross domestic product and payed nearly 7% taxes on 10 year government bonds. The reason: oh well, let's see who governed before Monti, right, Berlusconi. And in the years before, oh right, Berlusconi.
Who sustained Monti in doing, what he had to do, oh right, the usual Italian politicians. Also Berlusconi. You know, also the Italian parliament works with a majority vote. and all of them voted for Monti's reforms. Exspecially for uncommon ones. Uncommon for the Italy's people. A law against corruption of statesman/politicians was refused by those politicians. And did you know, what was actually the law, on which Berlusconi's party refues to sustain Monti anymore, oh right, a law against giving parliament members the right to stay in the parliament itself, who are indicted with any crime....

Italy is a sad country at the moment. Try to run the business if you can. Monti was talking, and only talking of growth, which growth...growth of taxes, growth of unemployment, growth of companies being shut everyday, growth of people who are not able to see future, growth of suicide rate out of desperation. I do not know where are you know, but in Italy at the moment there is not much of Dolce Vita thanks to his ingenious changes.

apparently you are not in touch with reality in italy. no sane person would contest that changes had to be made in the italian legal/political/economical system. berlusconi was running the country from his backpocket.. unfortunately nothing has changed since monti came to power. everything is nicely packaged as "liberating of markets" (labour,energy etc)but fundamentally nothing did change. for the sake of credit default swaps/spread bund etc (the actual speculative powers betting against italy,which brougt berlusconi down) monti is stripping italy dry. there is not a region unaffected by his policies. severe and extreme high taxes imposed on impovered italians, businesses shutting, house prices and sales which dropped in last year with more then 50%, banks that are no longer handing out necessary loans to private or corporates etc. the whole country is for sale, no more consumer trust, no more spending power everything is scaling down to pre worldwar 1 proportions. (unemplyment rates of 35% under 25yrs. by the way,talking about corruption how do you explain that taped telefone conversations inbetwwen the president of italy napolitano and some sicilian conncetions clearly caught him redhanded connected to the mafia.what happens, the monti gorvernment and the high court have these tapes declared illegal because they affringe the constitutional rights of the president, therefore should be destroyed. as if nobody heard what was on these tapes.monti ministers commenting the high court ruling as a victory for democracy.. world gone blind!!!!! the same mob is running the country, some things cant be changed in italy, wish they could. i severly hope that segregated italian society will face the common enemy monti and what is behind him, and send him on a holiday to end his days on lago di como..

I live and work in Italy since many years, but I'm German. And I can say, that's it's not Monti's fault. Since the days of tangentopoli nothing changed in Italy. And we can mainly thank Berlusconi for that. But now, Italy deserves a government like Monti's. 80 bln Euro lost due to corruption and 130 bln Euro due to evasion of taxes. Every year. That's also not Monti's fault. That's the failure of all Italians to adapt on rules&laws. From the barista, who doesn't give you a bill, the industry tycoon, who bunkers his money in Switzerland, to a functionary, that is used to get bribe money for every public work. We, and I mean us, who pay their taxes at the end of every month, sustain those people by buying from them or not press charges against them. There's your problem not in Monti. If it was me, I would have been much tighter, but I'm German as you know...

Mr Silvio Berlusconi has had much more experience about turmoil politics of Italy. He knows very well what to do at the time of sceptcal politics. He dramatically supported Mario Monti's government being defeated by move of non-confidence votes in the parliament. He did it only to save himself from any allegation that could arise centring his reign. so he enjoyed the Mario Monti's intrim governance without any incubus but a tax fraudulence case's verdict was gone against him & after it maybe he withdrew his support from Monti's government. Mr. Berlusconi has a full life & energy in the politics indeed but one thing is more important for him not to split his party by claiming indisciplinary perceptions in the party. Italy needs an experienced politician like Mr. Silvio Berlusconi to keep its economy steady amid of global economic recession. Politically motivated cases shouldn't be the only incompetence to be a memeber for the national legislature. Mario Monti's government may face a reversible thrust owing to Mr. Silvio Berlusconi's departure from the Monti's government.

That's the comment of the year. you don't actually have any clue, who Berlusconi really is and what he has done for Italy. In every other European country Berlusconi would have spent some year in jail for tax fraud, bribery or or falsification of balances. About his politics: did you actually know, that Berlusconi governed Italy for eight out of the last ten years? In these eight years, five of those with the biggest majority, that Italian parliament has ever seen, he couldn't manage to reform Italy. No, furthermore he demolished Italy as no one did before. And you really are able to give him a "experienced politician"? Experienced in what? Saving his companies and his person with laws "ad personam" from juridical consequences.....